Building arrangement

ABSTRACT

A building arrangement wherein a house provides two walls which act as walls for two different courtyards of two different adjacent houses whereby each house is in turn provided with two walls from two other different houses to form two of the walls of its courtyard.

United States aten 11 1 1111 3,874,137

Gentr A r. 1, 1975 [54] BUILDING ARRANGEMENT FOREIGN PATENTS on APPLICATIONS lnventorl Thomas H. Gentry, 404 Hilary n 814,522- 9/1951 Germany 52/169 Danvllle, Callf. 94920 [22] Fl d J I 9 1973 OTHER PUBLICATIONS e uy The Patio House, Urban Land lnstltute, 1200, 18th PP 377,150 St., Washington, DC. Copyright 1963, All 37 pages.

Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 117,744, Feb. 22, 1971, PmWY Emmme pflfred Peham abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser. No. Attorney! Agent or Flrm"Flehr Hohbach Test 734,480, June 4, 1968, abandoned. Albrltton & Herbert [52] US. Cl. 52/169, 52/234 57 BSTRACT [51] Int. Cl. E04h 1/02 A building arrangement wherein a house provides two [5 8] Field of Search 52/169 DT, 234 Walls which act as walls for two differeht courtyards of two different adjacent houses whereby each house is [56] References Clted in turn provided w1th two walls from two other dlffer- UNITED STATES PATENTS ent houses to form two of the walls of its courtyard. 3,254,458 6/1966 Van D61 Lely 52/169 x 3,427,645 2/1969 SprOul 52/169 8 Clams, 3 Drawmg Flgures PATENTED 3,874,137

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INVENTOR.

THOMAS H. GENTRY 'HJEMEDAPR' 1197s 3,874,137

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TNVENTOR. THOMAS H. GENTRY MEET 3 OF 3 III/IIIIIIIII 1 lulu ll uuul, III Hi l 1 mm. l (I INVENTOR- THOMAS H. GENTRY g4, MS

BUILDING ARRANGEMENT This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 1 17,744 filed Feb. 22, 1971, now abandoned which was in turn a continuation of application Ser. No. 734,480 filed June 4,1968, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to house building arrangements for achieving higher utilization of land area and more particularly to house building arrangements wherein each house has an individual courtyard. 2. DE- SCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART One of the most pressing problems in providing low cost housing involves the high price of land on which the houses must be built. If higher utilization of available land area can be achieved, the overall price of each house can be reduced for the comparable quality homes.

Most populated areas in the country have building restrictions and codes which often require front, side, and rear yards. These have been believed necessary for esthetic purposes and other real or imagined reasons such as to lower the transmission of noise between houses. These requirements have the effect of reducing the size of house which can be placed on a specific sized lot or of requiring the purchase ofa larger lot than is really necessary in order to build a specific sized house.

It is believed that if esthetically pleasing houses could be built on smaller plots of land and still have the advantages of outside recreation areas, insulation from sound transmission, and light and air inwardly directed to the house, that the object of zoning restrictions would be realized and yet the overall price of the house can be reduced.

Many studies have been made by state and federal agencies with regard to low cost housing, and one conclusion usually reached is that as the price of the house is lowered, many additional non-owners of houses can qualify to purchase a home. One study has indicated that in the San Francisco Bay area for each decrease of $1000 in the price of a house 40,000 additional families can qualify to own a home.

A particular solution to the problem is offered by th house building arrangement of the present invention wherein each house is placed in a corresponding corner of a lot and is provided with a private walled in court yard.

The best source of the state of the prior art with regard to homes having courtyards is summarized in a book entitled The Court-Garden House, by Schoenauer and Seeman, which was published by the McGill University Press in Montreal, 1962. Shown on pages 54, 66, and 72 thereof are various housing plans which are most closely related to the invention; however none of those building arrangements, nor any of the others, disclose or contemplate the specific features of the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a house buildingarrangement wherein each house has one wall which can form a wall for a courtyard or open area of another house and a second wall which can form a wall for a courtyard or open area for yet another house whereby all the houses in combination provide each house with a courtyard or open area in which at least one or more of the walls of the courtyard or open area are formed by the adjacent houses.

It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a housing arrangement which achieves maximum utilization of the available land area.

. It is another object of the present invention to provide a building arrangement wherein each house is provided with a walled in courtyard.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a housing arrangement wherein the walls for the courtyard of each house are formed at least in part by the adjacent houses.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide. a housing arrangement wherein each house is insulated by a solid wall from the courtyard of each of the adjacent houses to prevent the transmission of noise from the courtyard into the houses.

It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a courtyard for each house which is private and unobservable from the adjacent houses.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a housing arrangement wherein each house has numerous rooms which from and open onto a courtyard for light and air.

And still a further object of the present invention is to provide a housing arrangement which lowers the overall price of homes requiring the same cost to build.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a plan view of the building arrangement of the present invention; 7

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a preferred embodiment of a two bedroom house of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a preferred embodiment of a four bedroom house of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The present invention includes the method of achieving high utilization of land area for individual dewllings. The steps comprise first dividing the land into generally rectangular adjacent lots. These lots are preferably arranged in parallel adjacent rows fronting on opposed parallel streets which loop or deadend to reduce traffic flow. Each lot thereby has at least two edge lines and a rear line common to the other lots except for the four corner lots.

A house is then placed in each corresponding rear corner of each lot with one wall of the house disposed along a portion of the proximate rear line. Then the wall of each house disposed along the edge line is utilized as a wall for a courtyard or open area on the property adjacent the edge line and the wall of each house disposed along the rear line is utilized as a wall for a courtyard or open area on the opposed property adjacent the rear line.

Employment of the above-described method provides a housing arrangement wherein each house has a first wall which can form a wall for a courtyard or open area of another house and a second wall which can form a wall for a second courtyard or open area of yet another house whereby all of the houses in combination provide each house with a. walled in courtyard or open area in which at least one of the walls provided therefore is formed by the adjacent houses. Usually two of the walls of each courtyard are formed by two different adjacent houses except in the case of the corner houses and the illustrated four bedroom houses.

Generally the first and second walls of each house are solid contiguous outside corner walls and are disposed adjacent the contiguous boundary lines of the property on which the house is built.

Reference is made to the drawings. Shown in FIG. 2 is a preferred embodiment of a two bedroom house having a solid side wall 11 which is disposed along a portion of the edge line 13 of a lot on which the house is built. Within the house, all the service utilities are disposed along this wall such as the kitchen 15, the storage closet 17 with the water heater 19, the bathroom 21, and a walk in closet 23. A contiguous solid rear wall 25 is disposed along a portion of the rear line of the lot. A second side wall 27 having apertures therethrough such as sliding doors 29, leading out to a courtyard 31, forms a third wall of the house. The front wall 33, also having apertures therethrough, such as windows 35, forms the front of the house. A carport or garage 37 is disposed between the second side wall to the house and the generally solid side wall of the adjacent house. A three bedroom house has generally the same arrangement, but is slightly wider to M in the third bedroom.

The courtyard of the house is formed between the second side wall 27 of the house and the solid side wall 39 of the adjacent house on the adjacent lot, and between the solid rear wall 41 of the opposed house. The storage room 43 at the rear end of the carport forms a fourth wall whereby the courtyard or open area is generally walled in. However, the carport could be left open at the rear whereby it would not wall in the courtyard. Therefore, the term generally walled in in this regard means a front wall may or may not be present.

Thus the side wall 39 of the adjacent house forms one wall for the courtyard, the rear wall 41 of the opposed house forms another wall, and the second side wall 27 of the house on the lot of the courtyard forms a third wall. In turn, the rear wall 25 of the house on the lot forms a wall for the courtyard 45 of the opposed house and the side wall 11 of the house on the lot forms a wall for the courtyard 47 of the next adjacent house.

Reference is made to FIG. 3 wherein a four bedroom house as contemplated by the present invention is illustrated. The rear wall 49 of this house extends the full length of the rear property line whereby the rear wall 51 of the opposed house can, but does not, form a rear wall to the courtyard 53 because the house itself intervenes. Only the side wall 55 of the adjacent house forms a separate wall to the courtyard. If, for instance, the rear wall of the house is shortened by a few feet, then the rear wall 51 of the opposed house would form a wall for the courtyard. Thus, the term can as used herein defines the capability of the wall, but in some instances the wall does not serve the function.

There are two particular features which are present throughout the building arrangement and which can be used as one means of describing the invention. The first is that the side walls 57 and the rear walls 59 of each house forming walls for the adjacent and opposed courtyards 61 are contiguous and are disposed along portions of the boundary lines of the lot, but they do not necessarily extend the full lengths thereof. The walls are also solid whereby they provide privacy to both the courtyard and to the house. The lack of apertures in the wall, in addition to preventing observation, serves to reduce the transmission of sound between the two. The second distinctive feature relates to the fact that the two walls are always disposed in the same relative location on each lot whereby each house is disposed in a corresponding corner of each lot. In the present drawings, each house is shown disposed in the rear left hand corner of each lot, but this arrangement could be flopped over as a mirror image in each case and work just as effectively.

It will be noted that the building arrangement of the present invention has numerous advantages over houses built with front, rear, and side yards. A single side wall can be erected simultaneously for two houses disposed in corner to corner relation on catercornered lots, however, it will be noted that the property line does not follow the same side of the wall for the whole length of the wall. The line actually runs along the outside of each house and it must therefore make a wall thickness jog through the wall at the intersection of the rear and side property lines whereby the opposed lots on opposite sides of the rear line are slightly offset with respect to each other. The houses could also be built with the walls offset on opposite sides of the property line whereby the line would be straight and would make the surveying of the lots easier. Likewise the rear wall of the four bedroom house can extend the full length of rear line of the lot.

The lots can very easily be slanted with the backbone wall, or dividing wall between opposed lots, forming a series of parallel slanted walls in a herringbone pattern.

An advantage of the plan is that all of the houses can be made to face in the same direction for the best climate irrespective of location in the building tract.

The invention is difficult to describe and can be described in relation to the lot on which it is built or in relation to the other houses in the building arrangement. When described in the first manner, the invention is a building arrangement for adjacent property lots having common edge lines and a common rear line and wherein each of the houses having common edge lines front generally in the same direction and each of the houses having a common rear line front generally in opposite directions. Each house has one wall thereof disposed along a portion of the edge line of the lot on which it is built and one wall disposed along a portion of the rear'line of the same lot whereby the wall of each house which is disposed along the edge line can form a wall for a courtyard or open area disposed on the adjacent lot defined in part by the edge line. Likewise, the wall of each house disposed along the rear line can fonn a wall for another courtyard or open area disposed on the opposed lot defined in part by the rear line. Moreover the walls can be described as solid and having no apertures. This describes the building arrangement' by the structural arrangement of each house.

Another way to describe the building arrangement in relation to the boundary lines is by the characteristics of the combination of structures on adjacent property lots having common edge lines and a common rear line. The arrangement comprises a first house disposed predominantly in one corner of a first lot with two contiguous walls thereof disposed adjacent one of the edge.

lines and the rear line. A second and third house is disposed predominantly in the same corresponding corners of the two lots having common edge lines with the first house. The walls of the second and third houses are disposed in the same manner as the first house. A fourth house is disposed on the opposed lot having a common rear line with a first house. The house is positioned in a corresponding corner of the lot with the walls thereof also disposed similar to the first house. This permits the wall of the first house disposed along the edge line common to the first and second house to form a boundary for the courtyard or open area for the second house. The wall of the third house disposed along the edge line common to the first and third house forms a boundary for a courtyard or open area for the first house. The wall of the fourth house disposed along the rear line common to the first house can form a boundary for a courtyard or open area disposed between the first house and the wall of the third house. The pattern of the first, second, third, and fourth houses is repeated throughout the group of adjacent lots. 7

The building arrangement can also be described without relation to the property lines and comprises a multiplicity of houses having at least a front wall, a solid rear wall, a solid side wall, and a second side wall having apertures therethrough. The houses are arranged in combination in two generally parallel rows whereby the solid side wall of each house forms a wall for a courtyard or open area for the adjacent house in the same row and the solid rear wall can form a wall for a courtyard or open area opposite the rear wall of each house and disposed in opposed relation in the parallel row.

There are many advantages to the present invention. Mainly, maximum utilization of the land area involved is achieved. Each house is inwardly directed whereby light and air can flow into the house from the courtyard and the wind is excluded. The property can easily be kept clean since there are no side yards to clutter up and grow ragged and no debris can blow into the courtyard. Noise is excluded because of the solid walls, and privacy is assured to each courtyard since there are no apertures in the walls of the adjacent houses. Conversely no observation can be made into the adjacent houses from the courtyards.

The walled in courtyard permits a micro-climate to be established within for growing of various types of plants which might not otherwise flourish.

The arrangement of the houses provides a very distinct advantage whereby a person, such as the wife, can, from nearly every room within the house, and at all times, observe and completely control the court area. All utilities and storage areas are located opposite the court whereby maximum access to the court from nearly all the rooms of the house is assured. The houses are staggered which eliminates transfer of noise from plumbing and slamming of doors, etc. between one exterior surface of the house to another house.

It will be noticed that transfer of noise during the daytime from a courtyard must travel through a solid side wall and then through the service rooms before it would reach the living rooms. At night, when the bedrooms disposed next to the rear courtyard wall are used, the courtyards are most always quiet.

By reducing the amount of street front area to a minimum, and by eliminating the side yards, deterioration of the neighborhood is inhibited since there is very little area to clutter up. It is easier to maintain since there is less external area to control. The closeness of the houses eliminates the need for fences and lowers pedestrian traffic and directs it towards the park areas which are built adjacent to the housing groups. Vehicular traffic is reduced since the loop and dead end streets go nowhere. There is a visual continuity of structures when they are viewed from one end of the street which enhances the esthetic appearance of the area. The building arrangement cuts down the length of the streets, the size of the yards, and increases the land use which permits a reduction in total price for a full sized complete house.

It will be apparent from the foregoing description of the invention in its preferred form that it will fulfill all the objects attributable thereto. While it is illustrated and described in detail, the invention is not to be limited to such details as have been set forth except as may be necessitated by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A housing arrangement for a plurality of contiguous lots arranged in first and second rows, each lot in the first of said rows being arranged to have a common rear line with an aligned lot in the second of said rows, adjacent lots in each row having common edge lines therebetween and a front line facing a public street that is adapted to receive vehicular traffic, the edge lines of the first row being aligned with the edge lines of the second row, a house disposed in each of the adjacent lots of the rows, each house comprising vertical exterior walls enclosing a living area, each house being so positioned on its lot as to have a first generally solid vertical wall without apertures disposed along a common edge line and extending from one rear corner of the lot to the front of the living area and a second generally solid vertical wall without apertures extending along said rear line from said rear corner to that side of the living area remote from the first wall whereby said first exterior wall of each house disposed along the edge line of its lot forms an enclosing wall for a courtyard or open area for the house on the adjacent lot of the same row, and whereby said second wall disposed along the rear line of the lot forms an enclosing wall for another courtyard or open area for one of the houses disposed on the opposed aligned lots of the second row, said last named houses of the second row each comprising vertical exterior walls enclosing a living area and so positioned on its lot that it has a first generally solid vertical wall without apertures disposed along at least a portion of a common edge line that is aligned with a common edge line of the first row and is spaced the width of the lot from the first wall of the house on the opposed lot of the first row, each of said lots of each row having such courtyard or open area, each of said areas being bounded by a first wall of an adjacent house of the same row, by a second wall of an opposed house on an aligned lot of the other row and by said other vertical exterior walls of the house on the same lot, the other vertical exterior walls that enclose the living area of each such house being physically spaced from the first wall of the house on an adjacent lot to provide both said courtyard or area and also isolation between houses on adjacent lots of a row.

2. A housing arrangement according to claim 1 wherein each house is of substantially rectangular configuration to provide a substantially rectangular living area.

3. A housing arrangement according to claim 1 wherein an additional wall separate from the walls en- 8 the distance between the first wall of one house and the next house of the same row and is the rear wall of a storage area.

7. A housing arrangement according to claim 6 wherein said storage area forms a portion of the rear wall of a covered parking area.

8. A housing arrangement according to claim 1 wherein the service utilities of each house are disposed along at least one of said solid walls without apertures. 

1. A housing arrangement for a plurality of contiguous lots arranged in first and second rows, each lot in the first of said rows being arranged to have a common rear line with an aligned lot in the second of said rows, adjacent lots in each row having common edge lines therebetween and a front line facing a public street that is adapted to receive vehicular traffic, the edge lines of the first row being aligned with the edge lines of the second row, a house disposed in each of the adjacent lots of the rows, each house comprising vertical exterior walls enclosing a living area, each house being so positioned on its lot as to have a first generally solid vertical wall without apertures disposed along a common edge line and extending from one rear corner of the lot to the front of the living area and a second generally solid vertical wall without apertures extending along said rear line from said rear corner to that side of the living area remote from the first wall whereby said first exterior wall of each house disposed along the edge line of its lot forms an enclosing wall for a courtyard or open area for the house on the adjacent lot of the same row, and whereby said second wall disposed along the rear liNe of the lot forms an enclosing wall for another courtyard or open area for one of the houses disposed on the opposed aligned lots of the second row, said last named houses of the second row each comprising vertical exterior walls enclosing a living area and so positioned on its lot that it has a first generally solid vertical wall without apertures disposed along at least a portion of a common edge line that is aligned with a common edge line of the first row and is spaced the width of the lot from the first wall of the house on the opposed lot of the first row, each of said lots of each row having such courtyard or open area, each of said areas being bounded by a first wall of an adjacent house of the same row, by a second wall of an opposed house on an aligned lot of the other row and by said other vertical exterior walls of the house on the same lot, the other vertical exterior walls that enclose the living area of each such house being physically spaced from the first wall of the house on an adjacent lot to provide both said courtyard or area and also isolation between houses on adjacent lots of a row.
 2. housing arrangement according to claim 1 wherein each house is of substantially rectangular configuration to provide a substantially rectangular living area.
 3. A housing arrangement according to claim 1 wherein an additional wall separate from the walls enclosing the living area is provided, said additional wall extending at least partially across the spacing between the first wall of one house and the next house of the same row to screen off a courtyard area.
 4. A housing arrangement according to claim 3 wherein said additional wall is the rear wall of a covered parking area.
 5. A housing arrangement according to claim 4 wherein said additional wall is the rear wall of a garage.
 6. A housing arrangement according to claim 3 wherein said additional wall extends only a portion of the distance between the first wall of one house and the next house of the same row and is the rear wall of a storage area.
 7. A housing arrangement according to claim 6 wherein said storage area forms a portion of the rear wall of a covered parking area.
 8. A housing arrangement according to claim 1 wherein the service utilities of each house are disposed along at least one of said solid walls without apertures. 